Etihad Airways wins Simplifying award for Best Airline in Social Care

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has been named ‘Best Airline in Social Care’ at the SimpliFlying Awards 2018. The airline was also highly commended in the ‘Best Use of Influencers’ category.

The
awards recognise excellence and innovation in social media and marketing
campaigns in the aviation industry. Winners were announced last week at a
special ceremony held in London during the Aviation Festival – the world’s
leading aviation business and technology congress and expo.

A
panel of aviation industry and marketing experts selected Etihad Airways in
recognition its exceptional work in digital marketing, social media, and online
customer care.

Tim Burnell, Etihad Airways Vice President Marketing, said:
“Winning these important awards is testament to our continued commitment to
greater customer care across all media channels. We know our guests value being
handled with speed, empathy and compassion. And in a time where guest
interaction is being increasingly handled by machines, continuing to bring a
genuine and human touch to this process is an essential part of our philosophy.
This is evident in the high satisfaction rates we are seeing.

“As social media continues to become an ever-increasing component
of the customer journey, we will continue to innovate and embrace new
technologies in an effort to make customer care on social media a simpler and
more enjoyable experience.”

Etihad Airways maintains one of the industry’s quickest average
response times to customer queries on social media, and one of the highest
customer satisfaction rates.

The Etihad Airways Social Care team proactively responds to
customer queries 24 hours a day in multiple languages across the airline’s
social media channels. Etihad Airways also recently became the first airline in
the Middle East to offer customer care through WhatsApp.

Shashank Nigam, Founder and CEO of SimpliFlying, said: "In
the age of social media, customer care is the brand. It is heartening to see
that Etihad Airways has put its customers first with a proactive customer
service approach and empowered staff."

The commendation for ‘Best Use of Influencers’ is given to
airlines that are able to leverage influencer marketing on social media to
create meaningful interactions with relevant audiences.

“We apply the same approach to influencer engagement, as it forms
a critical part of any modern digital marketing strategy. We continuously
strive to ensure we partner with influencers our customers can connect with in
genuine and authentic ways, showcasing experiences only we can provide,” adds Mr.
Burnell.

Beyond working with traditional influencers, Etihad Airways also
engaged with more unexpected and unique individuals in the past year. This has
included Sophia, the world’s most advanced artificially intelligent robot. The
airline arranged for Sophia, a Saudi citizen and the only Artificial
Intelligence to hold citizenship of a country, to join local UAE influencer,
Khaled Al Ameri, for a mad-cap adventure through the iconic sites of Abu Dhabi.

Etihad Airways also worked with the young ‘Captain Adam’, who
stole the hearts of millions of viewers around the world with his knowledge of
aviation in the cockpit of an Etihad aircraft. The video, shot by the
aircraft’s pilot, quickly went viral. Inspired by the pint-sized prodigy,
Etihad Airways invited Adam for the experience of a lifetime, flying in the
commanding seat of an Airbus A380 simulator at its headquarters in Abu Dhabi.
The resulting film was one of most successful social media videos released by
an airline in 2017.